Video websites "take the blame" to fake webcast volume to break the single evaluation of "only broadcast volume"

In the view of third-party statistical agencies, video websites have repeatedly taken the blame for theft, blaming information asymmetry.

A TV series can be viewed 1.5 billion times a day on video websites and exceed 30 billion times in 33 days? "If this data is true, it means that China's population is by no means more than 1.4 billion, but should be two to three billion." Just last week, screenwriter Song Fangjin raised his doubts.

This once again brings up a controversial hot topic in the film and television industry: the number of Internet users in China is more than 700 million, and the number of online broadcasts of film and television dramas is 1.5 billion times a day, often exceeding 10 billion times. Isn't it a blatant data fraud? This kind of fraud can still be regarded as a publicity for viewing performance. Isn't it the product of the collusion of drama parties, publicity parties and platform parties? However, while the industry is clamoring for criticism, video websites are clamoring for injustice.

Song Fangjin's "bombardment" of the industry's bombing of

video traffic fraud to form the industrial chain

is not groundless. Recently, a survey conducted by "China Film Report" attracted widespread attention in the industry. The report pointed out that between February 22 and 23 alone, the number of clicks on the website of a certain TV series surged by 1.4 billion. Data monitoring agencies found that its broadcast volume was suspected of fraud, even reaching the severity of 90% water injection.

This also led to another TV series known for its high traffic being "lying dead". Song Fangjin pointed out that the show once achieved "33 days, 58 episodes, and 30.9 billion views across the network" at the end of the show, and achieved an astonishing traffic of "more than 1.5 billion views a day" during the broadcast period. He estimated that based on the total number of 760 million Internet users in China, if we want to achieve 1.5 billion views per day, each person should watch it on video websites at least twice to achieve such a huge number of views, which is obviously impossible to achieve.

In the eyes of many industry insiders, this question seems to ultimately point to the third-party swiping agencies that are rampant in fraud. On public pages such as Taobao and Weibo, third-party organizations that promote "low prices and guaranteed number of swipes" have formed an industrial chain."As long as 40 cents, you can swipe 10,000 views on video websites" and "as long as you can swipe in one day." The underground industrial chain of swiping traffic, swiping word-of-mouth, and swiping discussions, such as Weibo topics, has long been mature and in operation, and is also considered to be the black hand behind the fraud of TV drama playback data.

The platform argues

that the outside world has misunderstandings about webcast volume

, and there is indeed an underground industry chain where TV series traffic is falsified. However, based on this, it questioned the 1.5 billion views of a single drama in a single day, and believed that the broadcast platform acquiesced or colluded to this and included it in the black industry. As part of the chain, video websites are obviously not convinced and shout for injustice.

"If a drama has 200 million views, you think that 200 million people are watching the drama. This is a cognitive misunderstanding. The 200 million views may only be brought by 20 million people." He Yijin, deputy general manager of Tencent's video product technology department, pointed out that in the video website industry, there are actually two statistical standards for the number of plays played in film and television dramas. The common number of plays is an indicator called "VV", which means that as long as a user clicks on a certain video on the website, whether it is played automatically or the user clicks a button to play, whether it is on a mobile phone, PC or TV, as long as it starts playing, it will be counted as a "VV" play.

Based on this standard, a TV series with 1.5 billion views per day actually does not mean that 1.5 billion people have watched the series, but it is more likely that 100 million people have contributed 1.5 billion "VV" views. However, the 58 episodes of "Sansheng III Ten Miles Peach Blossom" with a viewing volume of more than 30 billion times has an average viewing volume of more than 600 million times in a single episode, which means that a maximum of 100 million viewers have watched feature films and tidbits 6 times on average. For the total number of video users across the network of 440 million people, this figure is within a reasonable range. Take the recently hit TV series "In the Name of the People" as an example. With a viewing share of more than 40%, the series's video views on the entire network have reached 13.6 billion as of last Thursday, and the number of views per day has exceeded 1 billion.

However, without counting the actual number of viewers, is this data traffic still valuable? He Yijin introduced that in addition to "VV", most video websites also count another playback indicator,"UV", that is, the playback volume of independent visitors. It means that as long as they are users under the same IP address, no matter whether they are watching on TV, computer or mobile phone, only one "UV" playback volume will be generated (In actual statistics, the situation of multiple people with a single IP will also be taken into account, and a relatively conservative ratio will generally be used for statistical concentration. For example, a single IP corresponds to a maximum of 3 UVs), which largely squeezes out the "VV" statistics. The moisture is implemented into the specific number of users.

To solve the problem,

in fact, in response to problems such as machine swipes and forged IP addresses in the swiping industry chain, various video websites have also set up "firewalls" to improve anti-swiping technology. As early as 2014, iQiyi established an anti-swipe team composed of more than 100 technicians. The online real-time anti-swipe system can intercept more than 90% of stolen swipe traffic, and there will also be manual review for content suspected of cheating.

"With the continuous battle of attack and defense, the magnitude of the brush amount we have monitored is gradually decreasing. The amount of stolen brushes has dropped from 1 billion yuan per day at the beginning to about 180 million yuan per day now." Tang Xing, chief technology officer of iQiyi, revealed that for film and television dramas that have a tendency to swipe, iQiyi will directly deduct the amount of pirated swipes, and will directly block accounts or IPs for high-risk IP users. He Yijin introduced that Tencent's backstage handling of stolen clicks is also divided into real-time and offline. If the backstage detects abnormal traffic in the series, the playback volume from the stolen clicks will be immediately removed and will not be displayed on the front desk."And those stolen clicks that are not discovered in real time, such as the sudden increase in playback volume at 3 a.m., will also be reduced the next day after technical screening in the background."

Some people believe that video websites often sign gambling agreements with drama companies, and the number of plays played will directly correspond to the revenue of the website's advertisers. Therefore, websites often deliberately let themselves go when it comes to traffic theft with drama companies and advertisers. In this regard, Wang Juan, editor-in-chief of Tencent Video, pointed out that this obviously underestimates advertisers."Advertisers, as the main stakeholder of the video platform, have their own third-party monitoring company to monitor the broadcast effect. The 'VV' data generated through the amount of swipes is not recognized by advertising companies and will not create advertising profits for video platforms. Blindly increasing playback volume is also a kind of damage to the overall platform's systems and services. It will affect the viewing experience and word-of-mouth recognition of VIP members."

In the view of third-party statistical agencies, video websites have repeatedly taken the blame for theft, blaming information asymmetry. Wang Beibei pointed out that as long as there is a single evaluation system that is "only broadcast volume" in the industry, there will still be room for rent-seeking in the underground industry of pirated swipes."Currently, video websites disclose front-end playback data (i.e.'VV'), while the outside world The statistical analysis still relies on these front-end data. It remains to be seen how much resistance there will be to pirated swipes." She hopes that the platform can disclose back-end data, and relevant departments will also introduce stricter regulatory policies to crack down on the phenomenon of swiping. "When doing data monitoring, our third-party data companies must also combine more multi-dimensional aspects such as online public opinion and fan feedback to evaluate the playback value of film and television projects, and effectively identify which video content is really hot."

Editor: yvonne